The Olympic soccer tournament has not started yet, but news of top European clubs trying to reach deals with young Brazilian players is already leaking out of London.
Promising playmaker Oscar is close to announcing a deal with Chelsea. Star forward Lucas is about to make a move to Manchester United. There is also talk about transfers for striker Leandro Damiao and playmaker Paulo Henrique Ganso.
The Olympic tournament is played mostly with under-23 squads, giving young players a great opportunity to display their talent on a big stage and improve their chances of a multimillion-dollar deal with a top club, but this time Brazil are bringing some of their top players to the tournament, many who have already shown their potential and are already playing in top clubs, and the few who are still playing in Brazil apparently seem set on be making their move.
Photo: EPA
Oscar, who will be wearing the No. 10 jersey when Brazil begins their quest for their first Olympic gold medal in soccer, is expected to seal a transfer to European champions Chelsea in the next few days.
The player admitted recently that he met with Chelsea doctors after arriving in England and confirmed that the English team are negotiating with his current Brazilian team, Internacional.
“There is a negotiation, but my agent is the one dealing with this, I don’t have any details,” the 20-year-old Oscar said on Monday at Brazil’s training camp just outside London. “If I do end up going to Chelsea, it would be a dream come true for me.”
Internacional club directors have said the negotiations are advanced and only minor details were pending. Brazilian media reported the deal could be worth nearly US$40 million.
Oscar, who appeared as a promising star while playing for Sao Paulo, scored all three Brazil goals in the 3-2 victory over Portugal in the under-20 World Cup final last year. He became a starter in coach Mano Menezes’ Olympic squad after good performances in Brazil’s friendlies played before the team traveled to London.
Lucas is another Brazilian player whose move to a top European club is imminent, with English media reporting that Manchester United have already reached a deal to sign the Sao Paulo forward, also for nearly US$40 million.
The player’s agent, Wagner Ribeiro, dismissed back home in Brazil the news that Lucas had signed with the English club, but Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson reportedly admitted that the club was interested in acquiring the 19-year-old Brazilian.
Lucas has been touted as one of the top players coming out of Brazilian soccer. He started making headlines almost at the same time as Neymar, who is Brazil’s top star and the player expected to lead Brazil to the gold medal in London and then to the 2014 World Cup title at home.
There were plenty of rumors about Neymar’s possible move to Europe in previous years, but the talks about his future virtually ceased after Neymar said sometime ago that he was staying with Brazilian club Santos until after the 2014 World Cup.
Neymar’s teammate at Santos, 22-year-old playmaker Paulo Henrique Ganso, has been linked to a move to Inter in Italy recently, while striker Leandro Damiao reportedly is also considering a few offers from teams in Europe.
Even those who have already left Brazilian soccer are in the middle of negotiations heading into the Olympics. Striker Hulk is one of them, reportedly about to leave Porto for Chelsea.
“My future is in God’s hands,” he said. “I’m very focused here, to give my best at these Olympics to become champions.”
Defender Thiago Silva, one of Brazil’s over-23 players along with Hulk and Real Madrid leftback Marcelo, settled his situation a few days ago, transferring from AC Milan to Paris Saint-Germain.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but